The James Webb Space Telescope: First Images

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

 

Writer: Leah Ramsay

Designer: Joe Olmsted

Editorial and design input from Dr. Kelly Lepo, Yesenia Pérez, Timothy Rhue 

Music from Music for Non-Profits

(SPEECH)

[MUSIC PLAYING]

 

(DESCRIPTION)

Text, How did we get here?

 

Images of the star-encrusted universe, brimming with light, color, and shine. Eternally in motion, in life, in death.

 

Text, "Cosmic Cliffs" in the Carina Nebula. Near-infrared. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. A new era of astronomy has begun. NASA shared the first data and full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022.

 

The collection represents the areas of science Webb will explore. Gaseous clouds of emerging and dying stars.

 

Text, Southern Ring Nebula. Near-infrared. From star formation to stellar "death," Webb will explore the full life cycle of stars.

 

Webb shows the gas and dust ejected by this dying star in unprecedented detail. A giant blue blob giving off orange-red billowing clouds.

 

Text, Webb's mid-infrared view reveals the dusty dying star (red) that created the nebula next to its companion (white).

 

Here, Webb unveils the sharpest, deepest infrared-light image of our universe yet. Deep Field SMACS 0723. Near infrared. A crowded cluster of beaming orange and white and red points and streaks of light. A six-point luminescent star. Text, Some of the light has travelled across space for more than 13 billion years to reach us.

 

Text, Webb examined many of the distant galaxies in detail, including this small red one. 13.1 billion years, a speck in the black sky. A graph of wavelengths of light: oxygen, hydrogen, neon. Text, Astronomers can "read" the light spectrum and learn what elements the galaxy contains, revealing the environment of the early universe.

 

This is the most detailed spectrum ever captured at this distance.

 

From the early universe to the present, Webb will study the evolution and interaction of galaxies. Images of four galaxies with their unmistakable pinwheel spokes, blue and green and red and white.

 

Text, Even in this well-studied group, Webb reveals new details of shock waves, tidal disruptions, and star formation regions.

 

On a much smaller scale, Webb will study individual planets. A point-to-point graph of wavelengths of light measured by the amount of light blocked.

 

Text, The evidence for water vapor in the atmosphere of this gas giant planet is clear, even without the computer model (blue line). The blue line tracks the undulating trajectory from point to point.

 

Text, Webb's clean, clear data here are promising for the study of future exoplanet atmospheres.

 

Webb's first observations only hint at the treasure trove of discoveries to come.

 

Clusters of galaxies, giants in the dark sky, ever spinning in the rhythmic dance of their insentient life. Text, Webb science has begun, and scientists are just starting to study the data. With each new image and spectrum, Webb will show us the universe like we have never seen it before.